How long has your 3/4 yr old been on the iPad/tablet during lockdown? (No haters thanks)

[Gettingonabitnow]

Hi

Just trying to gauge whether mine has been on it too much. I berate myself when she’s on it but actually with a 6 month old to contend with sometimes it’s a must.

DC1 is 3 and on it about 2-3 hours a day. Some ‘educational’ apps, some not.

Sound about right?

Thanks x

Dc1 is 5 has/ had about 30-45 minutes every other day during lockdown.
Dc2 is 4 and had the same as dc1.
Dc3 is 2.5 and had about 20 minutes every other day, about as long as they manage.
I also have a 12 month old dc4, and part time student, work in partner and mine’s business.

We do some activities, some together some with me hovering in the background or they play well together whilst the baby dismantled the house.
My kids don’t seem to show much interest in their kindles, and all but one has never much been interested in telly.

Very little but not because I'm against them, it's purely selfish reasons. They get so grumpy when taking it off them it ruins their mood for the day. It's easier to just say no.

Thanks everyone. Yeah it’s probably 2-3 hours iPad plus tv (another hour), so perhaps a bit much isn’t it.

I’m on mat leave - the baby is very clingy, so am finding it hard to juggle the two.

We watch tv when DC1 gets up and has some milk, then dressed, breakfast, go for a walk / park in the morning after the baby’s bottle at 10, then Back for lunch, then tv / iPad while lunch goes down, then stickers/jigsaw/crafts, tea, garden for a bit, tv / iPad, bath, story, bed.

My 3 year old has a kids kindle fire. He is allowed no more than 45 minutes maximum on a wet day. On a warm day he goes outside to play in the garden, does learning via play with me, or colours in, plays in his room, does online baby and music classes with me.

I have 2 other kids (ages 8 so currently being home schooled and a 10 month old baby).

I have a 3 year old and a 10 week old. We dont own a tablet so that particular screen is obviously zero hours but I would say she watches an hour of TV a day on average - usually so I can get some jobs done. If I was WFH I'm sure it would be more.

But I'm very lucky in that she is happy to play independently and has never been to nursery so is quite used to being around the house/garden all day.

If you're looking to cut down screen time I would take out the "TV while lunch goes down". Maybe you dont want to go swimming or running shortly after eating but something like reading books would still be sedentary but a bit more educational

zero because he doesn't have one... the TV is on for at least 4hrs 😣 he's good at playing and bimbling about by himself and spends a lot of time outside but it's just me here as DH works away and we have 5mo also so i spend virtually every minute either feeding the baby, napping the baby, preparing meals, clearing up, washing etc. the days do fly by not because they are enjoyable but because they are non stop tasks. what a life it is at the moment! my poor DS.

Yep. He’s on and off screens in the day as I’m homeschooling his brother and he just won’t work independently, so I’m forced to rely on screens. I hate it.

Age 3 soon to be 4 FS has

Tv morning 1 hour 7.30-8.30am

Teach your monster how to read etc apps on my phone 30-45 mins 10-10.30 ish

iPad YouTube 5pm - 6pm ish maybe is was until 6.30 today ! So honestly screens total inc TV 3 hours and I think I'm quite strict on limiting it.

Errrr *DS

DS is 3 this month. We don’t have an iPad and he doesn’t use my phone.
He can watch up to one hour total of tv a day, spread through the day or in a block.
It would probably be an awful lot more if I had a clingy baby though.

My 3yo DD watches around 1 hour TV a day (after breakfast), sometimes we see a film in the afternoon the 3 of us as a family, normally once a week (weekend).

I am surprised about how many 3yo have tablet time! Not judging on the screen time, just that I wouldn’t dare To leave my DD to play on her own with the tablet, I don’t think the tablet will last for very long!

I also think that the longer they watch tv, play on ipad, the worse it when you ask them to stop, so I don’t like to abuse screen time, otherwise she’ll have a meltdown.

There was 2 weeks at the beginning of lockdown where both of us were working from home full time and she watched way more tv during those two weeks, maybe 3 hours a day.

On days my partner and I are both working prob 3-4 hours of Ipad or TV. I'm trying to not get too worked up about it as its only temporary but do feel bad.

My 3yo DD watches YouTube on the iPad literally from when she gets up until she goes to bed 😬 she does go and play with toys but the iPad must be left playing at all times...

My 3 year old is watching every episode of octonaughts available on telly at the moment, I'm on mat leave and have a 3 month old also. I feel guilty when I see what his nursery friends have been up to, I try my best to do the activities suggested by nursery but don't get chance a lot of the time feel like I'm bumbling along and failing both of them a bit. Do what you need to get by, it's hard at the moment x

@crazycatbaby I have a 5 month old as well and very familiar with the failing both of them feeling!

@crazycatbaby and @Spam88 I also have a 4 month old and am also very much in the "I feel like I'm failing both of them" camp...

I'm sure we are doing better than we think. It's tough though.

Octonaughts is incredibly educational - as is most of cebebbies. They watch buckets of screens once in school - most of my 5 year olds learning from school is online so I now feel screens are fine if the content is good quality. My ds learned to read on reading eggs. I really dont think people need to feel guilty right now some screens are fine!

At the start of lockdown my 3yo was having about 4hrs a week saved for when she was being overly disruptive of DD1's homeschooling. She was using the Teach Your Monster To Read app. Unfortunately she's hit a stage that needs more learning outside the app to carry on (which we're working on), so is now only doing an hour or so a week on other apps. I think her usage is really low in the circumstances, but is balanced by the amount of TV she's watching 🙈 She has about 45mins of kids TV/film before 'school' starts, then 30mins of YouTube directed PE, another hour of TV at lunchtime, and a couple of times a week (at most) she'll watch a bit before dinner (this only happens if they tidy up quickly enough, so isn't the norm!). If the DCs were reversed in age there would be far more tablet use, as DD1 is unable to entertain herself whereas DD2 enjoys playing by herself.

My dd1 is nearly 3 and and is getting a fair bit just now. I've got a 4 month old baby and my partner is working from home. She gets to watch tv or do her tablet on and off through the daywhile I'm feeding her sister, doing bits of housework etc.

I actually find it's easier to get her away from the screens now that I'm not so strict with them.

@mrsspooky I think I know about every sea creature going; constantly got the creature reports song going round in my head

Ive done well on our family zoom quizes from octonaught knowledge!

piscis my DS is now 4 and a half almost, there's definitely a big difference between that and a 3 year old! He has only just had a tablet now (one of the kids kindle ones with the big bumper case) but previously he only ever used our iPads to watch CBeebies on when we were in A&E or once or twice on long car journeys. I wouldn't have trusted him a year ago I don't think so not just your 3 year old!

OP don't feel guilty, these are unprecedented times. I had DS age 4 and also another DS who's 15 months and hard work, plus DH and I are WFH (admittedly not full 8 hour days). I was so proud at the start of lockdown that we'd managed to stick to our usual tv rules of only from 4pm (paused to have tea around 5pm then back on until 6pm bath) but after about 3-4 weeks we realised we needed a bit of a break/time to spend with DS2 and so the TV started going on in the morning when we first get up. DS1 doesn't play alone although he is slowly getting slightly better. He still needs a lot of input though so it depends on the child too. Be kind to yourself.

Mine doesn’t have a tablet and only gets to use DP’s for school stuff (he’s 4) but is probably having about 3 hours of TV per day (broken down into an hour first thing, lunchtime and before dinner). He often plays while watching. We also have a 4 month old.

I would prefer it to be less but he does school work, plays imaginatively with toys, draws, likes board games and also does things like baking, as well as playing in the garden and going for walks. So I feel this is OK.

I find he’s most difficult, in descending order, after tablet time, TV in short episodes (as he can now choose his own episode and jump around), then TV where it runs for longer, eg Julia Donaldson films. Basically, the shorter the attention span required, the worse the effect! YouTube is banned for this reason.

I don’t personally think all screen time is created equally, but boundaries and limits are important. At this age, I think the question is what they’re not doing when they’re having screen time, if that makes sense - it’s important they have time doing rather than just reacting, if you see what I mean?

We have an app limit on the tablet of 1.5 hours (4 yr old) but she’s worked out which apps are not included ;) she also has a lot of tv time on top. I’m on mat leave and sleep deprived with a severe reflux baby but I also know I should be doing better by her.